Example Evangelism

Every Monday night for the past 3 years a bunch of us have been gathering together to play basketball. The primary purpose of this event is evangelism, but we don't preach at the people who come. How is that evangelistic? Well, I believe that God is a God of process, and that our love for Jesus is more caught than taught. There is a place for verbally declaring the gospel to people, but I believe there is also something to be said for living your life for Jesus in front of people and allowing God to open doors for conversations along the way in which we can talk about life and faith.

I know some people might not agree with my strategy, but I determined up front that I wasn't going to make our basketball a "strings attached" evangelism strategy. I just wanted to allow kids from the community to come and play basketball with some guys from the church and allow them to have fun and see the love of Jesus through us. There have only been a few occasions where we formally shared with all of the guys about our faith, but for the most part we have simply gathered together at the beginning of the night, prayed together for any needs that they want us to pray for, prayed for God to keep us from injury, and that He would help us to have fun and keep our attitudes in check. Beyond that, we just play basketball. However, what has happened, is that God has allowed us to model Christ-likeness through our actions and (and perhaps more importantly, our reactions to fouls), and to have conversations with guys in between games or while we're on the sidelines.

God has been so faithful! When we started, we just had a few Christian guys. There were a few nights in the beginning where we would just play 3 on 3. But we are now consistently running 30-40 guys, and for me the most exciting thing is that probably 75% of the guys who are coming are unchurched. Tommy, Dwayne, myself and others have just been befriending these guys and making them feel accepted and loved. We are also establishing some relationships with guys and capitalizing on opportunities to go into their worlds. Tommy especially has been connecting with some of the guys on their turf by going to some of their sporting events and other things. Way to go Tommy!

I believe that what we are doing is a vital part of the process of evangelism. While we may not be preaching and giving altar calls, we are plowing ground, planting seeds, watering, and every once in a while God has allowed us to see someone make a decision for the Lord.

I Corinthians 3:5-9 says, "What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building."

Pray for us! If you play basketball, come out and join us! We need some Christian ballers to compete and model Jesus with us. Our heart is that people would see Jesus in us more than just hearing us talk about him.

Example Evangelism